WELSH Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams will today join colleagues in Brecon for a party conference where she will rally the troops for a trio of electoral battles.

WELSH Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams will today join colleagues in Brecon for a party conference where she will rally the troops for a trio of electoral battles.

The political landscape was transformed earlier this year when UK party leader Nick Clegg led the Lib Dems into coalition with the Conservatives but Ms Williams insists it will not stop the party in Wales being free thinking and challenging the establishment.

She is quick to scotch any suggestion that they will not battle the Conservatives in Wales in the race for Assembly seats with real vigour.

“We will be fighting on all fronts,” she insisted. “We will be taking on the Tories in places like Montgomeryshire.

“We will be taking on Plaid in places like Ceredigion. And we will be taking on the Labour Party in their heartlands in South Wales.”

She continued: “I’m not in coalition with the Conservatives here. There’s no change to our policy.

“We’ll be fighting them as hard as we are fighting the other parties.”

She became the first woman to lead a Welsh party in 2008 and in the coming months she will throw her efforts into making the case for a more powerful Assembly in the referendum expected in early March – but she also looks forward to further constitutional change.

She is adamant that supporters of electoral reform must join in the fight for a Yes vote in the referendum on the Alternative Vote system, even though it falls on the same day as the Assembly elections.

Convinced that this is a “once in a generation” opportunity, she said: “I don’t think it is good enough for progressive politicians if they believe in changing this electoral system to simply wash their hands of it. There is a job of work to be done in getting out there and getting the message across to people and having an opportunity to debate those issues and get people enthused about it.

“It’s not good enough to say, ‘Well, I’ve got other things to do’ – we’re all busy.”

The AV system falls short of her goal of full proportional representation, but she said the first-past-the-post method used in Westminster elections was “grossly unfair”.

She is also certain that the party can continue to win the student vote in seats such as Cardiff Central despite fears about an increase in tuition fees following Lord Browne’s review of higher education funding.

Stating that Labour cannot escape blame for the rising cost of education, she said: “Hang on a minute, they were the party that in their manifesto said they wouldn’t introduce them and they did. Then they introduced top-up fees.

“Let’s face it, Browne was appointed by a Labour Government. His remit was set by the Labour Party.”

Signalling that her party will attempt to present a distinctive Welsh solution to student finance in the Assembly manifesto, she said: “We in Wales have always prided ourselves on trying to come up with a progressive policy which mitigates as much as possible some of the effects [to ensure] people aren’t priced out of higher education.”

But she stated that the focus could not only be on the challenges facing undergraduates, saying: “You can have as progressive a higher education tuition fee policy as you like but for the vast majority of poor children their chance of every getting anywhere near that system is done and dusted by the time they are 11 years old.”

She is also ready to defend the Westminster coalition’s decision to end child benefits for higher-rate taxpayers.

She said: “We’ve taken a very difficult decision that will undoubtedly affect some families so the poorest in society can be protected.”

Ms Williams is certain the party can still argue it made the right choice by joining the Conservatives in Government.

She said: “I think it’s absolutely clear that even on difficult subjects like tuition fees we are the driving force pushing for a more progressive and fairer system of funding, which I do not believe the Tories left to their own devices would do. I think some of the very positive things we have seen happen already in the coalition bear all the fingerprints of Liberal Democrats.”

It is less than two years since she took the reins of the party but she has found less friction in the Lib Dem group during this time of change than she feared.

She said: “The greatest surprise is how good the group have been. As you know, we were sometimes portrayed prior to my taking over as a bit of a fractious bunch that gave the leader a hard time and I’ve not had to deal with any of that.

“My colleagues have been 100% behind me and we haven’t had any discord.”

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NICK CLEGG last night urged his restless party to be patient, promising that the pain of presiding over spending cuts would eventually be replaced by a more credible offer to voters come the 2015 general election.

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